SUCCESS!!!

Yay! Crafting!

Today, I tried out a couple of the crafts I posted the other day. One I can't show you until tomorrow (it takes some time to dry and whatnot before I can proceed with the last steps), but here are a couple of pics to document my crafting prowess. (You can thank my wonderful husband for being willing to be silly enough to model for me.)

Without further ado, I give you the Pearl and Tulle Necklace:

...and a close up...

Hurrah! I love making things! It's so exciiiiiiiiting!

I'll post pictures of my other crafts tomorrow, I promise. :))))

Cannon Battle

If you follow me on facebook you will have seen a couple of posts (a few weeks ago) regarding a cannon battle I was fortunate enough to witness. (Well, actually, several cannon battles spaced out over two days.) It was a part of the San Diego Festival of Sail. I got to tour a number of sailing ships, including but not limited to: Star of India, HMS Surprise (as seen in PotC4!), Bill of Rights, and the Californian.

Anyways, I was selecting some photos to print and send to my grandmother and I re-stumbled upon one of the cannon battle photos I took. Had to share it here, because I LUUUUUUUUURVE it. :)

Enjoy!

Inspiration?

So, I was cleaning out my saved pics on my computer the other night (aka: wasting time), when I came upon the following comic:

Kind of depressing, right?

But also inspiring. Or, at least, guilt-inducing enough to kick one in the motivation-pants.

After reading that comic last night, I woke up early this morning and spent most of the day cleaning, catching up with family members, and eating more fiber (yay! health!). So I supposed the depression/guilt/motivation worked.

I put this comic up as my desktop background.

Let us see if it works again tomorrow.

It Goes On

"In three words I can sum up everything I know about life: It goes on."
- Robert Frost

BS Excuses

I'm an English buff. (It's probably obvious, since I'm a writer and the two usually go hand-in-hand.) And, like most English buffs, it is a pet peeve of mine to see people screw up elementary grammar because they didn't take the extra second to think about what they were saying.

(Side note: I also hate the phrase "pet peeve.")

I'm talking about the their/there/they're situation, as well as your/you're and its/it's. Excepting its/it's - which even I struggled with for a while - it really isn't that hard to remember which word means which thing. Especially with your and you're. The apostrophe just stands in for the missing "a" in "you are." You can tell by looking at it!

Anyway, the grammar itself isn't really my point.

The point I'm trying to make is that I hate bullshit excuses. Like needing to be "gifted" at spelling to be able to remember the rules of basic English.


You know what? I just realized what's bothering me isn't even really about that.

Okay. New point.


My point is: I hate being lectured by older people who hardly know me regarding my sensitivity to certain things/situations. Or rather: I hate being lectured by older people I hardly know who like to pretend we are familiar enough with one another that they're allowed this privilege.

The specific reason this made me think of grammar is because the lecture was regarding grammar. I used my facebook status as a mini-platform to express my frustration, and was given a lecture about my ignorance towards bad spellers, and how some people are not "gifted" with the ability to remember elementary grammar.

I don't think this would have bothered me had it been coming from my mom or my old high school English teacher (who, yes, happens to be a fb friend. nerdy, right?). They know me. Even from my mother-in-law, I would have understood. But who was this person?

The mother of a coworker (Navy buddy) of my husband, who I once met for all of twenty minutes. Following the encounter (which I thought was awkward and unpleasant, given the fact she would not stop gushing about how her son [a mannerless boor] was soo much more "gifted" than his classmates, one of whom was my husband.), she "friended" me on fb and has proceeded to stalk my every post.

I don't know why I accepted the friend request, but I am starting to get annoyed and a little creeped out by how frequently she likes and/or comments on my posts. This last one just annoyed me. (Probably ridiculous, self-righteous annoyance, but still.) I want to "unfriend" her, but...

You know what?

But nothing!

I'm going to do it right now!

Suck on that!


Sorry. Venting and being a crazy today. I feel like I've been a little unbalanced lately, and I think it's starting to show. Haha.

Just ignore me. O_o

____

Just reread this: I sound like an ass. But whatever, right? We all have those little things that bother us.

Being Crafty

It's probably due to my lack of job and my excess of free time, but I have been dying to try out new crafts lately. I've been using Stumbleupon.com to stir up some ideas. And there have been quite a few. Haven't tried any of them out yet, but I plan to very soon.

These are some of the ones I'm most interested in (aka: look the least complicated):

Frosted Glass Jar Lantern

Zipper Bracelet

Washer Necklace

Pearl and Tulle Necklace

Braided Headband

Felt Magnets

Recycled Glove Squirrel


They look fun, don't they?

Anybody else heard of any fun craft ideas lately?

Morose and Generally Mopey

...which pretty much sums up my moods lately. Lots of moping and "depression," interspersed with small moments of happiness that quickly get squashed by my inability to think positively.

Seriously. I think my brain is trying to sabotage my every happiness. For example: the other night I was sitting on the couch with my husband, just enjoying being with him, and then suddenly it hit me - when he goes on a deployment, I will be without that simple happiness for seven months at a time. And, even though his first deployment is almost a year away (possibly longer), I started bawling.

He was, understandably, confused by this outburst.

It's not just him, though. Sometimes I'll allow myself to be contented (for a moment) that we're financially able to support ourselves without me having to get a part-time job at Taco Bell or wherever, and that I can stay home and do my own thing. Then I think: why don't I have a decent job? Why aren't I able to get one? And furthermore, why don't I have a college degree? How did I eff that up? Then it continues on and I end up asking myself the question: What do I actually do all day?

The answer: a whole lot of nothing. The internet is a curse in that way.

I mean, I do dishes. I bake. I tidy things up. I tidy myself up. Sometimes I do silly arts and crafts, just to occupy the time. What don't I do? Anything productive. I can't remember the last time I wrote something new. I haven't had a job interview in months. (That one isn't for lack of trying, though.) Lately I've been thinking about setting up an Etsy page with some of the little crafts I've done, that way I can feel like I have some sort of thing I have to keep up with... And I suspect that if I'm bringing in money, even if it's just a few dollars at a time, I might feel like I'm being at least slightly productive.


I think what really frustrates me about the whole thing is that I should be writing. It's what I use to justify away the need/want for a college degree. ("Well, if I can publish a book without one, what's the point?") It's the title I give away sometimes when people ask what I do for a living. ("Oh, I'm a writer. Currently working on a fantasy trilogy.") BUT I'M LYING. Because I'm not actually working towards anything, because I'm not actually working.

I've got a horrible spiral going. Not writing makes me depressed, but I get so depressed that I don't feel like writing.

GAH!


What's worse? I'm complaining when there's nothing actually wrong with me. I'm (mostly) healthy, we have a nice place to live, and there are people who love and care about me. I have friends. I have family. I have two adorable (albeit frustrating) dogs. I have full use of my arms and legs. Generally speaking, I have a good life. So why can't I find that place of contentment?

And why can't I find the drive to effing write!?


(Sorry this one was so negative. I'm fine, really. Just frustrated. And, I think, starting to realize just how far California is from most of the people I want to hang out with right now. Blah.)